Ok, everyone except Carine was apprehensive about this stage - 130kms, more than 2000m ascent, but the promise of the sweetest singletrack the berg has. The route was more or less Day 1 of Berg n Bush route, give or take a few modifications.
I have never smiled as much on a ride as on the first 100km's. The mountains from Sterkfontein to Winterton are awesome, the views incredible and the track awesome.
Unfortunately Jan took a major wipeout on the first downhill due to his glasses fogging up, and really hurt his back and ribs. Once on the go again we took it a lot easier, but the technical track and knock from the wipeout cost Jan another spill, and then to make things worse a tandem sent him sliding off the track almost into the river. But then he recovered and set a serious pace on the last major climb for the day. Starting from behind about 20 teams we were completely alone by the time we crested.
The day was long, taking us 8:30 to finish with all the crashing, recovery, etc, but luckily we survived, there were a few bad wipeouts , broken bodies and bikes and the ER24 guys and helicopters were kept seriously busy. But if Carine's smile is anything to go by, the day was awesome, fun was had by (almost) all, and we'll get to continue tomorrow with another awesome berg stage.
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